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Australia v England, 3rd Test, 16th December , 23.30


Aidan11 said:
Its not the players fault.

Most of them are top test players, it's just that playing bazball does not always work. Yes they have played differently in this test, but the damage has been done and confidence is shot.
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Duckett and Brook didn’t play particularly differently in this innings. They were both made stupidly crap decisions again.
 
Sea to Shining Sea said:
I still find it hard to believe that there isn’t place for Leach and Foakes in the squad. They’re both the best at what they do that we have available. They should be there as options at the very least.
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I think you could argue for Foakes in the squad, but he was never going to start this series when Smith had a mid forties test average coming into it
 
Voice of fair play said:
The depth is not there imo if we make wholesale changes it really isn’t.

Pope has to go.

And we need to have a proper spinner god knows where from mind because don’t think we have a decent one.

But I don’t see many players who I think are better than the ones we have in the side.

At a push 2/3 changes could be made.
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Duckett, Crawley, Pope, Smith, Jacks & Carse can all fuck off for me.
 
Unless Pope goes away and fundamentally improves his technique, his test career is done.. Crawley played very well but doesn't do it anywhere near enough for me and the Aussies have played this series with great common sense and nous.
 
the average english opening partnership in the series so far is a measly 16 runs iirc... you're not winning a test match with those numbers, particularly when the bowling is also patchy
 
Voice of fair play said:
I think you could argue for Foakes in the squad, but he was never going to start this series when Smith had a mid forties test average coming into it
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Yep. He should be in the squad.

I’m not wholly convinced that Smith is anything like a natural keeper. He doesn’t seem to have the vocal energy behind the sticks or the energy between overs. He’s essentially a passenger.

Look at the difference with Carey and how active he is in the game (even aside from his skills with the gloves). It’s chalk and cheese
 
Partnerships

Aint it so true what they say, Partnerships win test. Aus have been great at smashing out 50/60/70 partnerships just relentlessly easy. Nothing outstanding but one man goes and the next comes in and scores.

Whenever we get going the next wicket is generally followed by another, and another, and another
 
Sea to Shining Sea said:
Yep. He should be in the squad.

I’m not wholly convinced that Smith is anything like a natural keeper. He doesn’t seem to have the vocal energy behind the sticks or the energy between overs. He’s essentially a passenger.

Look at the difference with Carey and how active he is in the game (even aside from his skills with the gloves). It’s chalk and cheese
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Yeah this series has shown up his abilities as a keeper especially in comparison to Carey.

However hindsight a wonderful thing.

Smith career up to the start of this series meant he was always going to be first pick
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
This could work, but he’s going to be coming in within 5 overs every match.

We need 2 of the top 3 to be traditional test batsmen. If today wasn’t a one-off you could have Crawley but today was the exception.
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Well that means he’ll be coming in as opposed to going back to shed!
We need a really really boring flat bat opener. Boycott or atherton ilk.

Crawley today- brilliant but like you say it’s the exception. All he had to do was get in and it got easier- absolutely mental bantz that
 
Voice of fair play said:
Yeah this series has shown up his abilities as a keeper especially in comparison to Carey.

However hindsight a wonderful thing.

Smith career up to the start of this series meant he was always going to be first pick
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He’s had a couple of shocking decisions but despite this his batting is Miles off in this series. I’d take the gloves off him and see if he can just bat without distraction. But that probably means going back to Foakes and i can’t see it
 
hank evans said:
He’s had a couple of shocking decisions but despite this his batting is Miles off in this series. I’d take the gloves off him and see if he can just bat without distraction. But that probably means going back to Foakes and i can’t see it
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Yeah keeping has been bad this series but I would not overreact and drop a player who has looked extremely promising in his career up to this point on the basis of one bad series.
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
Duckett, Crawley, Pope, Smith, Jacks & Carse can all fuck off for me.
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Duckett and Smith with enough credit in the bank. The rest, yes. We need an opener, 3, and a spinner. Archer, Atkinson, Tongue is a decent attack.

Brook’s the biggest disappointment for me. So gifted, but no desire to dig in. Always letting the team down with s*it shots, then walks off smirking. Minging attitude. We needed so much more from him this series.
 
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